<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

For other uses of Bermuda Triangle, see Bermuda Triangle (disambiguation).

The Bermuda Triangle is an area in the Atlantic where legend says that ships and aircraft disappear under mysterious circumstances.

Charles Berlitz's 1974 book, The Bermuda Triangle was a huge bestseller, and popularized the term with the general public. It wasn't the first mention of the reportedly hazardous area, nor even the first use of that specific name. However, its success led to a number of other books and reprints of earlier titles.

The basic assertion that the triangle is unusually dangerous has been disputed by insurers and other writers. While it would seem that the statistics would be easy to establish one way or the other, it's hard to create any sort of baseline.

Individual stories of strangeness, such as reported cockpit chatter about the ocean "looking wrong" are harder to validate or dispute, since first-hand evidence is generally not available.

If the Bermuda Triangle does need an explanation, what is it? Suggestions have ranged from Atlantean technology to UFOs to magnetic or gravity anomalies to interdimensional gateways to sea monsters.

It has also been suggested that there are other such areas, in particular the Devil's Sea off Japan. Ivan T. Sanderson suggested that there were 12 such areas (although he thought they were lozenge shaped) equidistant around the world in both Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Not surprisingly, sci-fi works have made use of the Triangle. The Fantastic Journey TV series centered on a group of people from different times trapped in the Triangle. One of the most famous cases, that of Flight 19, was referenced in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Location

Berlitz says:

 THERE IS A SECTION OF THE WESTERN ATLANTIC, off the southeast coast
 of the United States, forming what has been termed a triangle, 
 extending from Bermuda in the north to southern Florida, and then 
 east to a point about 40 degrees west longitude and then back 
 again to Bermuda.

--The Bermuda Triangle

For more information, please click the Bermuda Triangle category link at the bottom of this article.

Related Terms and Articles

• Devil's Sea